Dante VII Canto XXX Scene I

 Canto XXX

The Earthly Paradise; the way ahead.

Scene I

“Where is Beatrice?” Fabricius approached Dante.

“Gone. She left us.” Dante felt the stab in his soul. “She is ---”

“Madness? I believe it to be.” Fabricius added to Dante’s words. “She is mad.”

“You seem to say she is mad but what is madness?” Dante looked at Fabricius.

“It’s the state of mind; a state of severe mental illness that hovers between dangerous behavior ----” Fabricius was interrupted by Dante.

“No, I need to know from --- the ancient texts; the era of Homer.” Dante shook his head. “Bear with me. I can explain. There are more types of sacred insanity in Greek works; ritual, poetic or erotic, all of which were inspired by the god Apollo, Dionysus, the muses, and Aphrodite respectively. But how did the Greeks come up with these beliefs and to what extent can the mental states be described? For these ancient people, there was a difference between divine madness and madness caused by some sort of illness, as Herodotus recount in the story of Cleomenes, who runs amok either because the gods punished him, or because of excessive drinking. It is an old distinction, though not that old, because primitive peoples associate all forms of mental illnesses with divine intervention.” (extract from https://brewminate.com/divine-madness-in-ancient-greece/).

“Divine madness was a condition given by the gods. Or in this case, Beatrice believed herself to be God. Or rather believe herself to be one. She was drawn to it. I need to find out what and she will be released from it. We are all in a mad realm.” Dante heard then the loud melody that was from afar. He looked towards it and saw the marching possession of some form.

The first thing he sees approaching looks like seven golden trees. As they come nearer, however, Dante realizes that the distance made them appear to be something they were not. When they approached him, they were easier to discern, Dante realizes that they form a single candelabra with seven separate candles. These candles flame more brightly than a full moon at midnight on a cloudless night.

“I know that. It’s the Great Bear constellation. It was cataloged by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century. In Greek mythology, it is associated with Callisto, a nymph who was turned into a bear by Zeus' jealous wife Hera. Ursa Major contains several notable stars and famous deep-sky objects.” Astonished, Dante turns to Fabricius with a question on his lips, but the other was awestruck as Dante.

“Don’t you know, Fabricius? It’s the Bear.” Dante was excited but not Fabricius. He was baffled by the sight. “Fool! It’s the metaphor of the seven sins; the seven deadly sins are the seven behaviors or feelings that inspire further sin. They are typically ordered as pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. It was what we journeyed in Hell.”

Dante turns back to see a long line of people approaching at a snail’s pace; he elegantly describes their pace like that of a bride coming down the aisle at her wedding.

The nameless lady takes this moment to scold Dante for looking only at the “living lights” and for ignoring the others dressed in white behind them.

Only at this point does Dante even realize that the other souls are there. They are dressed in white so brilliant that it is reflected in the stream, like a mirror.

Dante moves to the very edge of the stream so he can see them more clearly.

Still focused on the candles, Dante realizes that as they move forward, each one leaves a banner of light behind it and that each was a different color. Soon as they pass, a beautiful streamer of rainbows drifts along behind, as if a painter has just painted the sky. Ten paces behind the candelabra come twenty-four more of the souls, all dressed in white and wearing wreaths of lilies on their heads. They were all singing. After the twenty-four souls came four animals, each of them bearing green leaves as a crown on his head and each having six wings full of eyes.

“Argus; the all-seeing monster,” Dante exclaimed out.

After the animals came to the triumphal two-wheeled chariot drawn by a griffin. The wings of the griffin were lifted high, but they are positioned so that they don’t break the seven bands of colored light, instead of rising between the pennants. The griffin’s wings were gold, as are the rest of his eagle parts, while the lion half of him was “white mixed with bloodred.”

“The griffin; the griffin I rode in Hell with Greyson. It’s here but tamed.”

Then three women danced by, each dressed in a different color—the first in fiery red, the second in emerald green, and the third in snow white. They change places and paces as they dance, one sometimes leading and soon conceding the lead to another. On the left side, four more women dance by, all dressed in red, following the rhythm set by the first three.

“Nymphs and ----Sirens?” Dante was baffled. Behind them, a group of seven elders followed, divided up into groups of two, then four, then one. One was identified by Dante as Luke, a follower of the “great Hippocrates,” and the other one carries a naked sword.

“The Damocles Sword.” Dante recognized the sword. “Hippocrates oath of healing.”

The next four pass by, followed by a “lone old man, his features keen… as if in sleep.”

“That’s is John the Apostle. He looks asleep but his mind is gifted with sight. As our dreams are when we seep but the soul is in it to see and feel as if we are awake.”

Then seven were dressed in white, just like the first twenty-four, except they wear no lilies on their heads, but instead red roses.

Then came the chariot. Just when Dante was to speak, the skies opened up with the sudden thunder and the chariot stopped before Dante.